The Body
by Sugar Kane
Summary: Claire visits her first crime scene.


_Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine, and no profit is made from these stories. (But I do have fun writing them: )_

Claire insisted on being there.

Ben wasn't thinking when he gave her the news; that the body that they'd recently begun a trial without had suddenly been discovered. In many ways, he was still adjusting to his new assistant. Paul Robinette had been with him for a long time, and he had accompanied Ben to crime scenes on many occasions over the years.

But Paul was gone now. And as far as Ben was concerned, this was nothing that a young lady should see. But he couldn't voice his opinion without sounding sexist, nor could he stop Claire from accompanying him to the site in North Jersey. The novice prosecutor seemed eager to prove that she was every bit as tough as her male colleagues.

Ben turned his Chevy Caprice off the dirt road, onto a pathway leading to a secluded wooded area. He and Claire stepped out of the car, and were greeted by Detectives Lennie Briscoe and Mike Logan.

The two cops looked very surprised to see Claire, and Ben didn't blame them. He knew that while female officers and MEs were now common at crime scenes, the DAs who showed up – when the need arose for them to be present – were almost always male. It was like that on purpose, thanks to a years-old unspoken rule at One Hogan Place.

Logan cast Ben a curious glance, silently asking him why Claire was there.

"It was her choice," he whispered in response, when Claire wasn't looking. "I tried to talk her out of it."

Meanwhile, Claire had started towards the CSU techs. Briscoe stepped in front of her.

"Claire, this is something that you might not want to see," he cautioned.

"Thanks for the warning, Detective," she replied with a slight smile, moving past him. Briscoe looked at Ben questioningly; he responded with a shrug. The three men followed Claire to a cordoned-off area, the spot where the body had been unearthed.

The body was one of the worst that Ben had seen in a while. It crawled with insects, and was well into an advanced state of decomposition. The smell of death filled the air around them. Ben covered his face with a handkerchief; even though he'd been to dozens of crime scenes, the smell was something that he would never get used to.

And he would have trouble getting rid of it afterwards. He always changed clothes immediately following these excursions, but it was of no use; the smell just lingered. It would be in his senses for days.

This was why Ben had tried to discourage Claire from coming here – rotting corpses were often still difficult for _him _to see, even after 20 years in the DA's office. He knew that the sight would be simply brutal for a rookie who hadn't seen anything like it before.

He looked at Claire. She had recoiled, cupping one hand over her mouth in horror. Her dark eyes were watering heavily, either from the smell or from the emotional shock of seeing such a thing.

Suddenly she ran towards the bushes. Briscoe and Logan looked at each other knowingly, as though they had been expecting it all along.

Actually, so had Ben.

"Excuse me, Detectives," he said.

* * *

Ben stepped gently through the bushes, following the sound of Claire vomiting. His feet squished into the soft ground, soaking him to the trouser cuffs. 

"Shit," he muttered quietly.

He found Claire not far away. She was leaning against a tree, coughing hoarsely.

"Claire?" he whispered, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Are you all right?"

She jumped slightly at his touch. "Yes, I think so," she responded. "Ben, I'm so embarrassed. You were right – I never should have come here."

"Don't be," he said, handing her his handkerchief. "I remember my first dead body like it was yesterday – and I had the exact same reaction that you're having now. It gets easier, but not by much."

"Maybe this means that I'm in the wrong business or something," Claire said, using the handkerchief to dab at her eyes.

"Hardly," Ben replied, smiling slightly. "Reactions like these are a good thing – they give us a stronger resolve in carrying out justice. When that's no longer the case, then there's a problem."

Claire steadied herself, straightening her clothing.

"Now come on," Ben said, offering her his arm. "And you want to know something? I'll guarantee you that at least one of those detectives out there threw up at their first crime scene too."

_finis_


End file.
